Shiranai Ougonjutsu 2
by Raven Aspen
Summary: RESURRECTION OF THE CRIMSON ELIXIR. Sequel to Shiranai Ougonjutsu. After being attacked in their own house, Ed, Al, Raven and Sakura are thrown into the investigation of strange terrorists that are attacking Amestris.
1. Fire

_**Foreword:**_

Yeppers, the moment that you all have been waiting for! (all 5 of you) Eh heh, anyway I'd like to thank everyone for their support and kind words that inspired me to keep moving forward on this story and get it done.

YAY! I have posted the final six chapters, apparently I had less to write than I thought.

I also went thru and revised everything, so no more misspellings and grammar errors!

The reviews have been set to public, so if you are not a member of and you want to leave a review, you can!

After the story, come visit the website that I've dedicated to the story, I hope to have some cool stuff on there sometime soon.

unknownalchemy **.** webs **.** com

Now with that all out of the way.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy Shiranai Ougonjutsu 2: Resurrection of the Crimson Elixir!

_**Chapter 1: Fire**_

It was a normal day, with no interruptions I finally thought that nothing seriously bad was going to happen. That was until I heard an explosion and a scream from Sakura...In our house…

I ran into the living room to see fire everywhere, and it was way too big for us to put it out with just a bucket of water. "Sakura!" I screamed. When I did so, smoke filled my lungs causing me to cough. I began to wonder what the hell happened to the smoke alarm and just then it sounded off filling the entire house.

I began to move around the big fire and try to see if I could find Sakura, Al, or Ed. I managed to see across the room but I had some difficulty with all of the ash flying around. I looked around a bit and something smashed into me and held tight.

"Eh, Sakura?!" She was crying and she said "I'm sorry" That's when I noticed she had her flame gloves on.

The fire was spreading to the ceiling and eventually some wood came down really close to us. Before it hit the ground someone grabbed me and pulled me backwards really fast. Whoever it was, I fell on them soon thereafter with Sakura still in my arms. Sakura got off of me, enabling me to get off of whoever I fell on. Low and behold...It was Ed.

I crouched down beside him as he sat up, obviously with the wind knocked out of him. "Are you alright?" I asked softly "Yeah I'm fine...Damn maybe I pulled you back too fast.." I helped him up saying "Actually you had two people fall on you."

I heard the sound of metal shifting around followed by Al's voice "A-Are you guys okay?" We all turned to face a big suit of blue armor that actually had a 15 year old boy inside. "We're fine, but we all won't be if we don't get out of here…" Ed said looking around for a way out.

He stood still for a moment then turned to me and looked at Sakura. "Sakura, ride inside Al..." She finally stopped clutching me tightly and walked over to Al who let her inside the armor. Ed quickly clapped his hands together and put his hands onto the floor. In front of him a lot of dirt rose over the fire that blocked the door and fell put most of the fire out, enough for us to get past.

"C'mon!" Ed yelled running towards the door. Al Closely followed and I started to run after them as well, only to be stopped by a large piece of smoldering ceiling that nearly fell down on me. I attempted to get around it and I got burnt on my leg. I howled in pain and came to my knees clutching my burn.

Then someone grabbed my right arm, I looked up to see Ed saying "C'mon! Get up!" I stood up my leg hurting horribly, then Ed pulled my arm over his shoulders and held my waist. This made it a bit easier to run, but for some reason I sort of enjoyed the feel of Ed's warm hand on my waist.

When we came outside many people were surrounding the place staring at the fire that had visibly spread only to be quickly shrank by the fire fighter's water hose. Still holding me, Ed and I both watched as the fire was put out, and I wasn't sure if it was just me but slowly but surely it seemed that Ed pulled me closer to him. At the thought of being closer to him I remembered what he had said a few months back, I could never truly forget those words.

My burn was luckily not a third degree, but they still made me go to the hospital and I really don't like hospitals. At the hospital, they cleaned and wrapped my leg and told me to come back in a day, when I got out I knew exactly what I wanted to do; talk to Sakura.

Al, Ed, and Sakura were sitting in the waiting room very bored, Ed especially. I walked over to them, and the moment Sakura saw me she said "How do you feel?" I looked down at my leg, it still hurt a little but it was tolerable "I'm fine...Sakura, about the fire at home…" Sakura shifted uneasily at the thought "…What exactly happened...?" I asked calmly. Ed looked over to Sakura and said, "That's a good question…" Sakura was visibly tense, but she didn't let this stop her from explaining.

"Um…Well…" She began, all three of us had our eyes on her, waiting for her to continue.

"I…I was going to practice my alchemy, so…I got my gloves on and…" She looked scared at this point, but of what? Us being mad at her, or was it something else?

"…I guess I…Accidentally snapped my fingers and…" She stuttered.

"Wait, what do you mean, "You guess"?" I questioned.

She looked up at me, and said, "Well, now that I think about it…I don't think the flames came from me…"

Ed and I cocked an eyebrow at her, Al probably did the same in spirit.

"I mean, the amount of flames that burst out…It was 10 times more than what I've managed, I would have had to have more fuel, or more power…The only thing is…" She got a scared look on her face again. "I…I did try and…pretend I snapped my fingers…"

We all were just confused, did she do it or not?

She saw the looks she was getting and said, "I am as confused as you guys right now, I didn't think I rubbed my fingers together that hard."

Ed rubbed his forehead and said "Why the hell would you be pretending to snap your fingers with your alchemy gloves on…"

Sakura blushed, I had an idea of why though, she just wanted to play around a little.

"Sakura, you know you should be more careful about that stuff." I said, gently scorning her.

Sakura look down at the floor and sighed, "I know…I'm sorry…"

"Um…She's got a point though." Al spoke up.

We all looked at him, he continued "I mean she isn't nearly as practiced and skilled as the Colonel yet, he would have been able to set the whole house on fire, but not Sakura. She can barely make a small couch burst into flames."

Sakura looked insulted, "Give me a few blows and I can!"

"Exactly, you would have had to do more than just snap once to set the whole house on fire." Al said.

"So the question is…" I said.

"…Who can…" Ed said.

"AND who did, I don't think that fire was any sort of accident." Al said.

I turned my head to look at Al, "You think someone was trying to kill us?"

"Well, if they are, then they're bound to try again." Ed spoke in a low tone.

"But why, what have we done to make someone mad?" Sakura exclaimed.

We all three looked at her like she was a dork for asking that.

"Bad question." I said.

"Yeah…" Sakura mused.

Ed stood up and stretched, "Well, no good sitting around here. Maybe we should go to HQ and report this…"

I looked at Ed in utter shock, "You'd be willing to see the colonel?"

Ed immediately looked annoyed, "Its not that I want to! Its just…I know he'll help us…And with such a huge threat on our lives, we may very well need that help. I mean we BARELY escaped that fire alive, one of us even got injured, I can only hope that's all that this person is capable of throwing at us."

Everyone sat or stood in silence, pondering the ideas Edward had expended.

Ed began walking away and said, "Like I said, there's no good in sitting around here."

We soon all started to follow him, next stop; Central City.

Can't I ever have a normal day?

_**End Chapter 1**_


	2. Attacked

_**Chapter 2: Attacked**_

We walked all the way to the train station, we would have stopped home to pack our things, but hardly anything lasted the fire.

There was much chatter and whispering amongst the people we passed by. They all seemed so nervous, could it have been because of that fire?

I soon spotted a newspaper, the headline "Third Attack in Two Days" _Third attack, what are they talking about?_ I was just about to pick up the newspaper when a gloved hand touched mine. I looked over to see Ed blushing and pulling his hand away, "Sorry!" he said quickly. I smirked slightly and picked up the newspaper. Ed leaned in to read as well.

"_In the past two days, there have been unexplainable explosions and fires across the nation. Authorities have no idea what could have caused them, and a few witness reports tell us they saw odd robotic-like things fleeing the scene. The eye witnesses also believe the odd creatures to be the culprits behind these terrorist like attacks."_ The newspaper read.

Just then a radio broadcast caught my ear, _"No word yet where these things are coming from, let alone if they are the ones to blame for these attacks. Here is what Colonel Roy Mustang of Central command has to say about the situation…" _

"Colonel…?" Ed mumbled.

"_I assure all of you that the military is doing all that it can to find the cause behind the attacks and the people responsible…"_

Ed and I glanced at each other in a sort of 'what the hell is going on' kind of way.

"_Colonel Mustang, there are many witnesses that say they have seen inhuman creatures made of metal at the scenes of the crime, do you think that these "Robots" are the ones responsible for all of the mayhem?"_

"_I cannot say at this time, all of the HQ's, especially Central, have been swamped with three attacks in just two days. We promise to inform everyone in the country of what we find out, but there's too little information now, If I were to say anything, it wouldn't do anyone any good. All I can really say is be careful and cautious, and don't worry, we'll find who did this. I can guarantee that."_

"Pfft, jeeze, the colonel is such a ham sometimes." Ed criticized.

"Damn, things are really messed up right now." I mused.

I looked back at the paper and began reading again.

"_The first attack was in East City, when I building had exploded as if it was a controlled demolition, but there was no demolition date made for the building by City Hall, or even the owners. Fortunately, there were no deaths, but that wasn't the case four hours later when a bomb went off in the middle of a busy street in Central. 12 were injured, 10 were dead. In the third incident, a house burst into flames suddenly in West City with four young adults inside, one was injured but no one was killed."_

"Wow, we even made it in here." I said as I carefully followed Ed to board the train.

"We did?" Sakura said.

"Yeah, right here…" I said and I pointed to the sentence that talked about our home catching on fire and let her take the paper.

Slowly the train began to move forward towards central. One by one, each of us got to read the newspaper article about all of these unexplainable attacks, and as different from each other we were, we all seemed to be getting the same bad feeling from all of this.

"That's horrible…" Al spoke as he finished reading the article. He handed the paper back to me and said, "Who would want to do this?"

"I don't know, but that rules out the whole 'someone trying to kill us' theory." I replied.

"And to be honest, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

I looked over at Ed only to see him staring out the window, obviously in deep though.

"Do you have any theories Ed?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh! Uh…Not really, my guess is as good as anybodies' right now." Ed replied.

I turned my head to face forward, staring at the floor, _Could these attacks be terrorist attacks? Amestris has pissed off it's share of people, but who would be on the offensive this time?_ My head was spinning, there were too many questions and no answers.

Fortunately it wasn't a very long ride from West City to Central, but this time the ride felt longer than normal.

Nightfall came, and only a couple hours later we were at Central Station.

Other than a couple peeps here and there, no one really spoke much, I guess we all were really thinking hard about what was going on.

As we stepped off of the train and onto the platform, someone in the crowd let out a scream.

"ITS THEM!! ITS THE ROBOTS!!"

People's already nervousness was just made worse when suddenly two very large metal things rose above the crowd.

They looked round, with small arms that ended with very simple 3 fingered hands, there was a sphere in between the two arms that rolled around and had a small black dot, and somehow it seemed they were floating.

My eyes widened, Ed muttered "What the..." and before anyone could even react some sort of barrel emerged from the robot, and shot directly into the crowd causing a fiery explosion.

Screams, embers and debris filled the air, Ed grabbed my hand and yelled over the noise "Lets get out of here!" I was awe-struck, was all of this really happening...?

Just then the robot shot into the crowd again, a little further away from us, but just close enough to hear the screams of terror and pain. Ed dragged me along, Al not far behind holding onto Sakura so as to not loose her in the chaos. The crowd pushed and shoved, the stress high not only from being suddenly attacked but from the lack of space.

The robot shot again into the crowd right behind us, only this time just close enough that we were thrown forward and spread apart by the aftershock.

I fell square on my face and lost grasp of Edward, my heart rate was so fast I thought it would explode. Just then I heard something behind me, I sat up and looked behind me to see the robot right there. The sphere that looked like and eye rolled about until it 'looked' at me, it aimed it's barrel at me about to shoot. In fear I froze, at that moment I couldn't think, my thoughts didn't go beyond 'Holy shit, there's a Robot right on me aiming some sort of crazy cannon at me'

Just then someone grabbed me and pulled me up, the robot fired right at the spot I was. From the aftershock I was thrown backwards into whoever dragged me out of harms way, we flew into the ground, then rolled backwards two more times. Somehow all of that placed me in Ed's arms, I guess he was the one who saved me. Without blinking, he pulled me back up yelling "C'mon!", before I turned around and started running, all I remember was seeing the robot looking at where it just shot, and looking up realizing it missed.

...So we ran...

...And ran...

...And ran...

All the way to Central HQ we went, because that was the only place we could think to go...

...Mustang would be there...

...And Hawkeye, and everyone else...

...They could help...

...They could help stop the massacre...

...They could help fight these things...

...These robots...

...These things that dared to attack us on our own turf...

...In our own backyard...

...Our homes...

...They would pay...

...They _will_ pay...

_**End Chapter 2**_


	3. Fight

_**Chapter 3: Fight**_

Colonel Roy Mustang paced back and forth behind his desk, something obviously troubling him.

Edward tapped his finger. Glaring hard at the coffee table before him, not because he hated it, his look was a result of the anger and impatience he was having. He wanted to fight these things, and get them out of here once and for all.

And as far as Alphonse, Sakura, Hawkeye, Armstrong and myself, we all knew exactly how he felt.

But all we could do was wait... Wait for an answer back from the people who went looking for the robots.

_**Flashback to an hour earlier**_

_"Why the hell are these things just attacking people?!" I yelled with anger painstakingly obvious in my voice._

_"If I knew that, I wouldn't be running, I'd be trying to stop them!" Edward replied equally angry._

_We had been running for only 10 minutes, and we could still hear the screams and cries of the people at Central Station._

_I wanted very badly to help them, but I still didn't regret running._

_"It was a rhetorical question!" I yelled back._

_"Well, quit asking rhetorical questions, they're pointless and a waste of energy, 'kay!?" Ed yelled, slightly lashing out from all of the stress._

_**Back to hour later**_

At least I know Hawkeye, Mustang, Armstrong, Al and Sakura were only feeling that.

As far as Ed and mine's anger, there's a little something extra fueling our fires.

_**Flashback**_

_"Well sorry for me thinking out loud, I'm just venting, there's no point in you lashing out at me!" I snapped back._

_"Yeah, well, hate to break it to ya, but you aren't the only one angry here!" Ed replied, a slight mocking tone in his voice._

_"Don't you think I know that?!"_

_"I don't know!"_

_"What do you mean you don't know?"_

_"Well, you ask me stupid questions that you 'say' that you know I don't know the answer to. With that in mind I'm just not sure anymore."_

_"I told you it was rhetorical!"_

_"Yeah, and I told you to shut up, so why don't you go ahead and do that!"_

_"Excuse me?"_

_"You heard me, shut up!"_

_"Go to hell Edward!"_

_"On the contrary, I think its YOU who should go to hell!"_

_"You're not funny Edward, you're an asshole!"_

_"Ooo! Big words little girl, I think you should be careful with those!"_

_"FUCK OFF!"_

_"Hey now, don't make me say it again!"  
_

_I stopped running..._

_**Back to hour later**_

No one really could tell of what happened between us before, only the little reminder that swelled on Ed's cheek.

_**Flashback**_

…_Ed stopped also, soon did Al and Sakura, all wondering why I stopped._

_I was facing the ground, my face hidden, I was trying to get a hold of my emotions._

_"Oh what, are you going to cry now?" Ed mocked._

_I looked up at him, and without any notice, I raised my fist and brought it hard and fast into Ed's face._

_The irony was, that the moment my fist hit his face, all you heard was the explosion in the distance where one of the robots had shot again._

_Ed stumbled nearly falling over, grasping his cheek, he looked up and stormed straight up to me screaming in my face, "What the hell was that for?!"_

_"For being an asshole!" I yelled back, not quite as loud as he did, pushing him away from me as I did._

_"What! I'm an asshole for teasing you?!"_

_"You weren't fucking teasing me, you were antagonizing me and taking shit out on me that I had nothing to do with!!"_

_**Back to hour later**_

I almost felt bad for hitting him...

_**Flashback**_

_Ed glared at me hard._

_**Back to hour later**_

But then again...

_**Flashback**_

_And before I knew it..._

_**Back to hour later**_

He was quick to abolish that regret.

_**Flashback**_

_...I felt a cold metal hand slap me across the cheek._

_I regained my balance and stared at Ed in angry disbelief._

_"Oh you did not just do what I think you just did..." I said to him calmly._

_"It's not good to lie to yourself, its very unhealthy..." Edward replied._

_I lost my temper and charged at Ed._

_Ed lunged at me..._

_"STOP IT!!" Al yelled._

_Sakura grabbed me, and Al grabbed Ed._

_"This is not the time or the place for you guys to turn on each other like this!" Al yelled._

_"Shut up Al, this isn't your fight!" Ed yelled as he tried to escape his brother's grasp._

_Al quickly grabbed Ed by his ponytail, Ed yelped in pain and grasped the back of his head. _

_"No! This fight shouldn't __be__ at all!" Al scorned him._

_I relaxed my arms and gently shook Sakura off, I then began walking towards our destination._

_"Al's right, we have more important things to do. We need to inform the Colonel about this attack, if he hasn't been informed already." I said._

_Al let go of Ed's ponytail, Ed dusted himself off and started running towards Central HQ, and the rest of us quickly followed._

_**Back to hour later**_

The phone on Colonel Mustang's desk rang loudly. Everyone's gaze jumped to the phone's location, Mustang then promptly walked over and answered it.

"Hello-?"

"Yes..."

"...I see... Alright, just stay there and keep an eye out."

Mustang hung up the phone and turned to the eager faces that were itching to hear what the word was.

"The "Robot's" have disappeared, but we're still having everyone keep a close watch on the city." Mustang spoke.

All of us were disappointed about the news, except for one of us...

Edward stood up.

"Wait, what do you mean "Disappeared"? I saw those thing's myself, they're freaking huge! How could they just suddenly disappear without a trace?!" He exclaimed.

"I don't know, Edward. I am as boggled by this as you are, but the fact that we were late in getting troops out to the scene probably is a factor, they probably snuck away just as we were getting word of the explosions." Mustang replied, completely keeping his cool in the face of Edward's hot-headed-ness.

"But what about the MP's that were nearby? Wasn't there any sort of emergency communication line that they could have used?" I spoke up.

"We got only one frantic attempt from someone to contact us about the incident. Apparently that station was blown up. But it still is fishy that we didn't hear anything from the neighboring stations." Mustang replied to me. "A number of things could have happened..." He said in a low and quieter tone.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late for the excitement, what'd I miss?" Lieutenant Colonel Hughes spoke as he entered the room.

"Not much..." Ed spoke drearily, "...Other than the killing spree at Central station by some big ass enemies we're giving the label 'Robots'..."

He sat back down.

"...And then it all wrapping up in them 'Magically Disappearing' without a trace, despite the fact that they float around and they're like 300 feet in diameter..." He continued sarcastically, emphasizing the ridiculousness of "Magically Disappearing" by waving his hands in the air like a ballerina.

"I heard about that, except for them magically disappearing..." Hughes replied. He heaved a sigh,

"Who could explain unidentified enemies blowing random places up and killing several people..."

"Seems to me that someone wants a war." I said in a dark tone.

The room was painfully silent until Sakura spoke up.

"Um, there was something a little weird about the robots we saw at the station..." She said shyly.

"What wasn't weird about them?" I said.

"No, I mean, there were some weird markings on the back of it..." Sakura said.

"Yeah that's right! There was something that looked very much like a transmutation circle on it!" Al exclaimed.

Sakura looked up at Al and said to him, "So you saw it too!"

"Uh huh!" Al replied to her.

"When did you get a chance to see the back of it?" Ed asked, intrigued by that statement since the robots never seemed to turn their backs on us.

"When one of them tried to shoot Raven." Sakura answered.

The memory of that moment shot back to me like a screaming bullet.

"Transmutation circle, huh..." Mustang mused, looking out the window at the now quiet city of Central.

Looking at it now, you would never believe all the chaos that occurred before had even happened.

"Maybe that's how they're being controlled..." Ed suggested.

We all gave him a look asking for a explanation of his statement, which he gladly gave.

"I've seen a lot of strange means of Alchemy in my time, the ruins of Lebis are a perfect example of that." He spoke.

"Oh yeah, they had those transmutation circles that transported you around the city. I remember you complaining about your stomach every time we went on one of those." Al said.

Ed looked slightly annoyed, "Yeah, well, that's beyond the point..."

"So you don't think that there's a pilot inside...?" Hawkeye spoke after a long time of silence.

"Ed's saying that there's a distinct possibility that whoever's manning these things are outside of them. If someone could figure out how to control robotic machines from an extended location with alchemy, how convenient it would be. You could wage war or commit terrorism without loosing any soldiers." I said, without looking at Ed.

"But what if there are people inside the Robots?" Sakura asked.

"Then the question is what's the transmutation circle on their backs for." I replied.

"Just another slue of questions without answers..." Ed mused.

"Yep, that's life in the investigations department..." Hughes spoke.

...Insert pregnant pause here...

"Sakura, Alphonse," Mustang called.

Sakura and Alphonse looked up at him saying "Yes?"

Mustang turned from the window to face the two of them.

"Do you, by any chance, remember what the circle looked like?" He asked.

Al and Sakura looked at each other.

"Uh, a little bit..." Al said.

Sakura the spoke "We can maybe try and draw it out," She turned to Al again "What do you think?" she asked.

"We could try." Al said.

Mustang's phone rang again, he promptly picked it up.

"Hello-?"

"...Yes..."

"...I'll be right there."

He hung up the phone and said, "Hawkeye, Hughes, come with me."

The both looked slightly surprised as he began walking towards the door.

"Uh, is there something wrong?" Hughes asked as Mustang passed him.

"You'll find out, just follow me." Mustang said flatly.

After they had left the room, everyone was silent again.

My thoughts wandered back to the fight Ed and I had, I looked over at him and he looked at me.

I am almost certain we were giving each other a dirty look. We broke eye contact almost as fast as we made it, what I didn't realize is that Al noticed.

"Hey, um, where is the bathroom at." Sakura asked.

With a still annoyed look on my face, not because of Sakura, I stood up only for Al to also stand up and signal me to stop.

"I'll show her where it is." Al said.

I gave him a look of confusion, but then I realized what he was trying to do, he wanted Ed and I to make good from the fight earlier. I sat back down and said, "Thanks Al."

Al nodded and the two of them left the room.

I looked over at Ed.

--

"Al you didn't have to do this." Sakura said.

"Yeah I did." Al said.

Sakura looked confused, Al explained.

"Raven and Ed need to be alone for a little while, otherwise they'll probably be like this for days. If they talk there won't be so much tension left over from their fight, and with the way things are right now, this may be the only chance they'll get to talk in private." Al said.

Sakura's confused expression disappeared, and she turned her head back to face forward.

--

I more like stared at Ed for almost a minute, he didn't react though, not even a look of nervousness.

I finally gave up in annoyance, what is wrong with him? Does he really not notice that I'm here?

"I'm sorry..." Edward said suddenly.

I quickly looked back over at him, and he looked at me with a guilty expression.

"...For hitting you..."

I was almost in shock, was that what he was thinking about in silence the whole time?

"Well, I _did_ hit you first, and to be honest you didn't really hit me that hard." I said, after all, he's the one with the swollen cheek not me.

"That still doesn't make it right, whether you hit me or not." Ed said looking at the ground now.

Wait a minute, since when has he felt bad about hitting me? We've hit each other before, but then again it was only when we were either play fighting or sparring. He's never hit me because he was angry.

I leaned forward towards him, "I'm sorry I lost my temper." I said. I raised my hand and gently placed it on his swollen cheek, it was pretty big now. "Jeeze, I really hit you hard..." I said.

"I'm sorry for that to-" Ed placed his finger on my lips.

"I had it coming." Ed said, almost smirking.

I smiled slightly, I couldn't deny that, he DID have it coming.

Just then Mustang busted in, we looked at him like he was crazy, but he didn't leave time for reaction.

"The robots have been spotted, we need to go NOW!"

_**End Chapter 3**_


	4. Machines

_**Chapter 4: Machines**_

We jumped to standing position in reaction to what Mustang had said.

I had just thought that we were going to need to find Al and Sakura, but as soon as I did, they showed up right behind Mustang.

"What's going on?" Al asked.

Mustang turned to leave the room saying, "I'll explain on the way there, now hurry!"

Without question we walked quickly after Mustang as we all sped down the hallways of Central HQ.

We busted out the front doors and began running down the street, I was about to ask Mustang why we were running, but Ed beat me to it.

"Colonel what the hell is going on!? First you're saying the robots disappeared and now they're back!?" He exclaimed.

"One of the robots got stuck not too far from here. There are MPs there trying to keep the thing there, but they aren't having an easy time." Mustang explained.

"Which is where we come in, right?" I asked.

"Right, this may be our one chance to find out if those things are manned from the inside or outside." Mustang said.

"Wait, how does the damn thing get stuck?" Ed asked.

"Quite simply it got snagged in between two trees, this gave the MPs a chance to try and tie it down, but it won't be long before that thing starts blowing people up again, so we have to hurry!" Mustang said.

"How are we going to catch it?" Al asked.

"Oh I know, with Mustang's giant pink butterfly net!" Ed taunted sarcastically.

I started laughing quietly, Sakura did too.

"No, I don't own a pink butterfly net..." Mustang said in slight annoyance.

"Nope, it's a giant one!" Ed continued taunting.

"How do we catch it then?" I said over snickers.

We heard a bunch of yelling as we saw a line of MPs get slung into the air by the robot, who was clearly in a tight situation.

"Simple, we break it." Mustang said as he pulled his flame gloves on.

"I don't see what's so simple about breaking that." Ed said.

I smacked him lightly over the head and said, "Shut up and come on, Ed."

With one of its arms the robot grabbed one of the ropes that the MPs had over it and yanked it, slinging around more soldiers.

After that, the thing sure enough got un-wedged between the two now very beat up trees, Ed immediately clapped his hands and put them to the ground moving a great amount of earth overtop the robot and pulling it down to the ground. The earth turned to stone and kept the robot down. Ed smirked triumphantly, that was at least until the thing shattered Ed's restraint.

His jaw dropped at how effortlessly the thing had broken all that stone, the robot turned to face him, he knelt there agape until I jumped in front of him and put my hands together saying "Don't give up, dammit!"

I put my hands to the ground and tried something similar to what Ed had tried to do, but I made the rock denser in hopes that it would be harder to break. I covered the robot almost entirely, and it squirmed in protest, but it didn't seem like it was getting thru.

It suddenly stopped squirming, we thought it had given up, just then it fired its cannon and shattered the entire restraint. It then without warning started shooting at us, we ran behind a building for shelter.

"Damn, this improv. thing isn't working, we need a plan!" Ed said.

"I think I have an idea." Mustang said.

We all four looked at him, he looked at Edward and smirked, "Looks like we'll be needing your giant butterfly net after all, Fullmetal."

--

The robot fired and fired at the building as pieces of it began breaking down, but it still took it a while to break the building down.

Once the last wall fell, we were no longer behind it, the robot looked around in confusion and just then fiery explosions hit it over and over again from one direction.

It turned to see Sakura and Mustang snapping away, the robot tried to attack, but completely missed because it couldn't see.

Sakura's flames went into the robot's moving marble like eye to blind it, while Mustang's more powerful attacks pushed it backwards little by little.

In behind the robot, Ed and I transmuted a huge steel cable net, ready to bag up the robot that was backing slowly towards it.

"I still think we should have made it pink." I said to Edward, he laughed.

Soon enough the robot was very close to the net, no more playing around, Mustang snapped with both hands at the same time giving a burst of explosive flames that sent the robot flying backwards right into our net.

Ed and I transmuted the poles that held the net up to bend down and go into the ground.

The robot started to recover from the blast, but just then, Al jumped on it and broke the eye in one powerful punch.

The robot's cannon moved and aimed at Al, he jumped out of the way before it fired. Al landed right next to the cannon, scribbled out a transmutation circle and blocked the robot's barrel completely.

He then pounded into the shell until the metal weakened and gave way, he pulled it back to reveal bolts and wires, but no sign of a person manning it from the inside.

Just then the robot grabbed Al with one of its arms and threw him into the neighboring shrubbery. The robot rose into the air again and began pulling the net out of the ground. "Aw hell." I said out loud as Ed and I started trying to keep the poles in the ground.

Al then sat up in the bushes and yelled, "There's no one inside! There's and outside source controlling it!!"

Ed and I weren't really paying attention, but Mustang heard him and came to a conclusion.

"Just hold it for a little longer." Mustang shouted to us.

He stared at the hole that Al had made in the robot, it wasn't very big so it'd be hard to hit. He raised his hand, aiming at the hole in the robot's "head".

Ed and I were getting the poles to stay, but then one of the cables of the net snapped and nearly hit Ed. More of them started snapping, then Ed yelled at Mustang "We can't hold 'em much longer, hurry it up!"

Mustang squinted, then with out warning he snapped his fingers sending his flames right into the hole in the robot.

It exploded inside the robot, and when the light died out, the robot collapsed.

We all stared at the incapacitated machine, a little shocked that we finally brought it down.

Al got up out of the bushes and began walking over to where Ed and I were standing. Mustang and Sakura also began making their way over to us.

"Well we caught it AND we broke it, so now what?" Al asked shaking leaves off as he went.

Ed and I panned from Al to the robot with exasperated looks on out face.

What a great question Al, what do we do with it now?

_**End Chapter 4**_


	5. Dismantle

_**Chapter 5: Dismantle**_

After completely taking down the robot, one of the MPs that were still alive nearby went to the nearest station to get help for the injured and to get some sort of truck to move what we caught.

Many of the MPs that got thrown around suffered from injuries like severe bruises and broken bones, but no one died thank god. The injured officers were taken to the hospital as quick as the robot was taken to Central HQ.

While all this went on, Ed, Al, Sakura and I all fixed the house that the robot had destroyed, as boring as that was, and thank god we had alchemy. Fortunately there was no one inside the house, it was actually for sale, or was anyway. We fixed the broken foundation, support beams, insulation and bricks, but as far as interior goes, we were told not to bother.

We finished fixing the house right about as the whole mess of the scene had been cleaned up. Once we replaced the last brick, Mustang walked over to us and examined the building we had just fixed.

"Great job, looks almost new." Mustang said with a smile.

"Thanks!" I said smiling back.

"Yeah!" Sakura agreed.

"It's not a problem." Al said.

"Well its the least we could do for this building, after all it kept our asses from getting blown off." Ed said, as he patted the wall.

Two cars pulled up behind Mustang, he turned to look at them then turned back to us. Just then, the driver of one of the cars came out, saluted the Colonel and said, "Sir, the robot was successfully transported to HQ and is now in the lower part of the building."

I was kind of amazed that they even manage to move that thing in the first place.

Mustang nodded at the driver then turned back to face us.

"We should go and investigate this thing now before anyone else in the Military decides to try and take the case from me." He said.

We all piled into the two cars and went back to HQ.

--

Once we got there, we went in thru the back, where there was a door to the store room of the HQ. Seeing the huge double doors, it wasn't a question how they could fit the robot inside.

The drivers of the cars parked and then escorted us into the building.

As we walked thru the building, we could see all sorts of things that the military had confiscated over time.

Vehicles, weaponry, there were even a couple DO NOT ENTER signs on some of the doors.

Stuff in there must be so top secret that even the military can't look at it!

We finally got to a door that didn't have one of those stupid DO NOT ENTER signs on it, the driver led us in.

Once we got inside the room, we saw the robot, and next to it was some sort of large door, probably how they got it inside.

There were still people struggling to get the thing off of the tow they had it on. Finally they pryed it off, making it roll over and then slam into the ground.

On the back of it, we saw the transmutation circle that Al and Sakura talked about.

"Well, I guess you guys don't have to worry about recreating that circle, huh?" I said to Al and Sakura.

Al slightly chuckled, Sakura said, "Yeah, that and we won't have to worry if we drew it wrong!"

"Well now what do we do with it. It's a given that we get a copy of that circle so we can decipher the formula, but what after that?" Ed asked Mustang.

"We'll also need to take it apart to see how it works, however, so many of our mechanics are busy with repairing all the damage that this robot and its friends caused." Mustang spoke.

"So what are you saying, you need someone to take it apart?" Ed asked.

"I'm thinking so, oh and by the way, we figured out the reason why no one contacted Central command during the first attack." Mustang said, turning to face the rest of us.

We looked at him with a questioning look.

"Whoever was controlling the robots had enough forethought to go and destroy any of the neighboring stations. The first explosion was really them blowing up the train station's main way of contacting us." Mustang explained.

"There was a Military Station nearby though, and the communication we did receive was from there. However, before the officer could tell us anything, the station was blown up." He continued.

We all looked at each other in shock.

"So can we suggest that this was an act of terrorism?" I said.

"That's the obvious fact, the question was what was their motive for randomly blowing things up. Now it seems that whoever is doing this doesn't want the military involved." Mustang said.

"Hey Colonel," Ed began.

Mustang looked at Ed.

"If you're still looking for a mechanic to take this thing apart, I have just the person for you." Ed said.

"Oh really, and who might you have in mind?" Mustang asked.

"Winry Rockbell." Ed said.

Mustang looked confused, "Your automail mechanic?"

"That girl has been taking things apart to see how they work since she first could pick up a screwdriver. She would be glad to dismantle something like this." Ed said with a chuckle.

"That and if you had Winry do it, what little left over mechanics you do have will be free if any emergencies pop up." I added.

Mustang thought about it for a moment, the said "Alright, but you may want to make sure she'll be okay about it."

--

Ed tapped his finger as the phone rang, as he waited for Winry or Pinako to pick up.

_"Hello-?"_ A girl answered the phone.

"Winry?"

_"Edward? Is that you?" _Winry said in shock.

"Yeah, its me..." Ed said, feeling bad for not calling more often.

_"Well well, look who finally decided to call me. Y'know I wouldn't have to worry about you guys so much had you wrote a little more often than once every 4 months." _Winry scorned Edward.

"I'm sorry..." Ed said mournfully.

_"You said that last time too, Edward. Anyway, it's good to hear from you, what are you calling for?" _ Winry asked, perking up a bit.

"I have a favor to ask of you." Edward said, perking up as well.

_"A favor, oh don't tell me you not only busted your automail but you're also hospitalized again!" _ Winry said, concerned.

"No no, it's nothing like that, I didn't break anything!" Edward said defensively.

_"Oh well, that's great news, not only your not breaking you automail, but you're not almost getting killed!" _Winry said, chuckling as she teased him for previous antics.

Ed chuckled as well.

_"So what do you need me for?"_ Winry said.

"Well, have you heard about the robots?" Edward asked.

_"Believe it or not, this small town girl actually caught wind of the city news, but the again who wouldn't know about these attacks. Y'know they even blew up a house that had kids inside. They didn't get killed though, only one was mildly injured, what a close call..."_ Winry said.

"Well, that close call actually was us." Edward said, he kind of wondered if he should have kept quite, this information would only worry her more.

_"What?!"_ Winry exclaimed.

Too late, he already said it.

"Raven was the one that got injured. Just a burn, it's almost healed now." Ed tried to make it not a big deal.

_"Oh my god, I'm so glad you all are alright."_ Winry said, relieved that everyone made it out safe.

"Anyway, we just took down one of those robots no more that two hours ago. We have it here at Central command. They need someone to take it apart, but all of their mechanics are busy with all the damage the robots caused. And as far as people to take things apart, you were the first person I thought of." Edward explained.

_"Wait, so are you asking me to come out to Central and take apart one of those robots to see how they work?"_ Winry asked.

"Yeah." Ed answered.

_"Every last bolt, wire and washer?"_

Ed chuckled quietly, what a 'Winry Question'.

"Yes."

_"Oh I am so there!! When do you need me?"_ You could hear her excitement so obvious in her voice.

"As soon as possible." Edward said.

_"Tomorrow afternoon okay?"_ Winry asked.

"Yeah, that's perfect."

_"Okay great! I'll be there!"_

They were about to hang up when Winry said, _"Oh, Ed? I have just one more question."_

"Alright." He replied, expecting some sort of technical question about the robot, like "how complex is it".

_"Will you be there?"_ Winry asked kind of quietly.

Ed was a little confused, "Uh, yeah, I'm gonna be investigating this too."

_"And I'll get to see you?" _ She paused for a moment.

_"Al, Sakura and Raven too?"_

Ed paused for a moment, the he smiled, it wasn't until just then that he realized just how much Winry missed them.

"Yes, you'll get to see all of us."

_"Great! I'll see you then!"_ She said gleefully.

Ed chuckled, "Yeah, see you."

He hung up the phone, and stood there for a moment.

_Will you be there?_

He thought back to how she sounded when she asked that, she couldn't possibly miss him that much, he wasn't really even a good friend, he wasn't good about calling or writing, the only time he really ever visited was when he needed his automail fixed. The only reason he visited more often recently was because Raven nagged him. He needed Winry a lot more than she needed him, and yet...

_Great! I'll see you then!_

...She still wanted to see him.

--

"It's great to hear that's she's willing to do it, now I just need to think of what to give her for compensation." Mustang mused.

"Uh, I don't think she's really worried about getting paid." Edward said.

"Nonsense, that robot is ten times her size and will take days to dismantle, its too much work to ask to be done for free. I'll think of something, in the meantime I want you to investigate that circle, find as much information as possible, too much information even." Mustang said as he turned to look at Edward.

"Even the slightest detail about this thing can help find the source."

Edward nodded and said, "Yes, sir."

He was willing to do anything to put the maniac deploying these robots behind bars.

Mustang yawned, "You can do all that in the morning though, right now its going on 3 AM. You should get some sleep."

Ed turned to leave, but he stopped and looked back at Mustang, "What about you?"

Mustang picked up a few papers and started straitening them out, "I have a lot of work to do first, don't worry about me."

Ed left the office and went to the Inn we were all staying at, the girls stayed in one room, and boys stayed in another.

Ed opened the door to his and Al's room, the lights were already off. Ed kicked his shoes off and went strait to bed.

Tomorrow was a big day, he had to get as much rest as possible.

_**End Chapter 5**_


	6. Examine

_**Chapter 6: Examine**_

The train's whistle blew as it screeched to halt.

Amongst the crowd pouring out of the train, a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes stood out from the rest.

She scanned the crowd until she spotted two other girls not much younger than her. The girl smiled and waved at them, "Hey! Over here!" she yelled.

I looked around until I pinpointed the source of the noise. The blonde girl was named Winry Rockbell, she was not only an automail mechanic from Resembool, but she also was the one that built my automail and Ed's as well.

Winry made her way over to Sakura and I, once she finally pushed thru the crowd she put her suitcase down and hugged me.

"Its good to see you again, Raven!" Winry said happily.

"Its good to see you too, Winry!" I replied, hugging her back.

She let go of me and immediately hugged Sakura.

"You too Sakura, things going well with your flame alchemy?" Winry asked.

The came out of embrace and Sakura nodded, smiling widely.

Winry turned back to me and said, "How's that automail holding up?"

"Ah, good! I haven't had any problems at all!" I said, raising my left arm.

Winry smiled.

"That's probably because you take better care of it than Edward!"

"Yeah, well if it can withstand Ed's abuse, it can handle anything!" I chuckled.

Winry and Sakura laughed.

"Speaking of which, where is Ed and Al?" Winry asked, scanning the crowd a bit, looking for the two brothers.

"They're at the central library researching the transmutation circle that was on the back of the robot… Well, at least I think it's the back…" I said.

"There was a transmutation circle on it? I wonder what for?" Winry mused.

"That's what they're trying to figure out. They would have come out to meet you here, but-" I began explaining.

"Its okay, I know how they get when they're determined to figure something out." Winry said.

--

"Ah ha!" Ed exclaimed.

Al looked over to where Ed was, "Did you find something?" he asked excitedly.

"Yeah, _finally_! I found one of the symbols." Ed said before he began reading.

"Only one, huh…?" Al asked a little disappointed.

"So far, but there may be more in here." Ed replied.

--

Winry, Sakura and I went back to the HQ, when we got there I led her thru the back way that Mustang had shown us last night.

We went thru the halls and to the large room that the robot was in. The lights were already on so I didn't have to switch them on.

"Oh my god…" Winry said as she set her bag down.

She began walking towards it, staring in awe.

"This is…" She began, as she ran her hands along the metal.

"Scary?" I suggested.

She looked over her shoulder with sparkles in her eyes. "Incredible!" She exclaimed.

I chuckled and shook my head, just then Mustang walked in.

"Ah Winry, it's good to see you could make it out here. I apologize for the short notice." Mustang said.

Winry looked to see Mustang standing there, she then smiled and said, "It's no problem, this thing will be a blast to take apart!"

Mustang chuckled, "Well, I'd say take your time, but we don't have much time. So instead I will say this; You don't have to rush, but don't take any more time than you have to."

Winry nodded in acknowledgement. Then two other people walked into the room. Mustang saw them and then turned back to Winry.

"Oh, I also got you a little help." Mustang said signaling to the two people.

One person was a man about the same height as Mustang, the other was a short woman sporting thick black framed glasses.

"These are the only two mechanics we have available currently, Cory MacDier and Jaymie Sola. Cory, Jaymie, this is Winry Rockbell." Mustang introduced everyone.

Winry exchanged 'hellos', handshakes and 'nice to meet yous' with Cory and Jaymie.

"If you need any tools, you should find anything you need along the left hand wall." Mustang signaled to the wall to the left of the robot.

"Oh, well I brought all of my own tools." Winry said signaling to her bag.

"Well, if there is anything you really need from over there, you are more than welcome to use it." Mustang reassured.

Cory rubbed his hands together and said, "Well, let's start prying this thing open!"

Winry chuckled, excitement was obvious in her eyes.

Mustang walked up to me and said, "I need you two to start helping Ed and Al on deciphering the formula of that circle."

"Heh, back to work for everybody, eh?" I said.

"That's just how things go around here. They're at Central library, they're in…Well, you shouldn't have much trouble finding them." Mustang smirked.

"Yeah…" I took a few steps forward and said, "Hey, Winry, I'll see you later, okay?"

Winry peeked out from behind the robot, "Wha? You're leaving already?"

"Yep, lotsa work to get done, good luck you guys!" I said.

Sakura and I waved and we turned to leave, next stop, Central Library.

--

"Anything yet?" Ed asked Al.

Al heaved a sigh and closed the book he was holding. "Not in this book, that's for certain."

He stood up and placed the book in a pile they had of all the books that didn't have anything of use in them.

Ed put the book he was holding over his face, "Dammit, there's gotta be something in here…"

"This is almost like the time when we were deciphering Dr. Marcoh's book on the Philosopher's Stone…" Al said.

"Yeah… Who new this thing was so complicated and rare…"

Ed lifted the book off of his face and stood up. He walked a step over to the nearby table that had a picture of the transmutation circle on it. He picked it up and began examining it.

"But still, I can't shake the fact that it looks so familiar to me." Ed mused.

I poked my head out from behind a book shelf, upon spotting Ed and Al I said, "What's up?"

Ed looked up from the paper and smiled, "Ah, so you guys came to join the yawn-fest." He said, setting the paper down.

"I take it you're not finding anything…?" I started walking towards the table, Sakura closely following.

"Pretty much." Ed replied.

I looked at the three piles of books and asked, "Which one's the 'no' pile?"

Ed and Al pointed to the largest pile and said at the same time "That one…" in a dreary tone.

I laughed silently, "What about the 'yes' pile?"

They pointed to the smallest pile drearily and said "That one…"

"And this is what's left?" Sakura asked as she stepped towards the medium stack of books.

"Yep, dig in…" Ed said as he grabbed a book from the pile and the sat down on the floor.

I walked to the table where the transmutation circle was. My eyes widened and I snatched it up off of the table. I brought it closer to my face as I carefully examined the symbols and the designs.

"I recognize this." I said flatly.

Edward's eye's darted up to me, he started standing up while saying, "You recognize it?"

"Well, most of it." I corrected.

Ed came closer to me and started staring at the circle.

"What do you recognize from it?" He asked.

"Well a lot of these patterns and symbols I saw on Scar's arm." I said, indicating to different points on the circle.

Ed looked at me like a lunatic and said, "Are you serious?"

I looked at him and nodded, he took the circle from me and looked over it more.

"Now that you mention it, I recognize some of this too." Ed mused.

He spun around, set the paper down on the floor next to him and he began going thru books like crazy.

"What are you digging for, brother?" Al asked.

"Well, Raven said she recognized the symbols in the circle from the tattoo on Scar's arm, right?"

Before anyone had a chance to respond, Ed continued, still digging thru books.

"And the transmutation circle on Scar's arm is supposed to be a circle used in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone."

"So…?" Al began.

"So…Dammit!" Ed had torn thru all of the books they had piled up, he threw the last one down a quickly stood up.

"We've been looking in the wrong section."

All three of us followed him and started collecting any books that would have anything remotely having to do with the Philosopher's Stone. After that, we started going thru them.

--

_**3 Hours Later…**_

--

"Fount it!" Al shouted.

Everyone dropped what they were doing and jumped over to Al.

"Right here, they show several transmutation circles used for creating the Philosopher's Stone." Al said as he pointed in different parts of the book.

I grabbed up the circle that we were researching, we all looked at it and then started comparing the circle to the others.

We went thru about 5 of them before we found one that matched.

"Next to this one it says that its purpose is to collect souls for the Stone. Once a number of souls are collected, the energy collected can be transferred to the main circle on which the stone will be foraged." Al read out loud.

"Well, there's the motive for attacking and killing people at random." I said.

Ed stood up and said, "Well, better report all of this to the Colonel."

Al grabbed the book and the circle and they started walking away.

"Hey wait a minute!" I exclaimed.

Ed and Al turned to look at me, wondering what I was yelling about.

"What about all of these books!" I said, swinging my arms at the mountains of books.

"Just leave 'em." Ed said, and he began to walk away again.

"What?! Leave them! Jeeze, no wonder people want to kill you Ed! We have half the library here, it's not like they're overstaffed here, now BOTH of you get yer butts over here and help me put these books back!" I was yelling at this point.

Ed and Al walked nervously back over to the books, then grabbed an armful and went to put them back. Sakura and I did the same.

_**Another 2 hours later…**_

"Damn, I didn't think we grabbed THAT many books!" Ed said exasperatedly.

"Thankfully, we're done. Al, you still have the book we need, right?" I said.

"Yep!" He replied.

Ed checked out the book we needed and then we headed over to Mustang's office.

_Man, I can't believe it's already 11 o'clock._ I thought.

We stepped into Mustang's office to find everyone in there along with him. Armstrong, Havoc, Hughes, Hawkeye, Fury, Breda, and Falman were all in there. Mustang turned to us with a concerned look.

"We've got a problem." He said

_**End Chapter 6**_


	7. Search

_**Chapter 7: Search**_

"What do you mean, 'We have a problem'?" Edward asked.

"What I mean, is that the second robot that attacked a couple days ago with the one we captured is on a rampage and is going as far as tearing thru buildings. We have to stop it." Mustang said in a very serious tone.

Just then a knock came to the door.

"Come in." Mustang said.

Winry walked in, holding a bunch of papers. "Um, Mustang, sir, I came in to give you a report on what we found today." Just then she saw Ed, Al, Sakura and I.

"Oh, hey, what are you guys doing here?" she said.

"Winry, did you find any sort of weakness or weak spots that the robot has?" Mustang asked.

"Uh, well…Let's see…" Winry began shuffling thru the papers, then she stopped.

"Ah, here we go, It seems that the metal closest to the "eye" seems to be the weakest. The underneath, however is the strongest. Pretty much any place where there is an addition, eye, arms, guns. Pretty much those areas…"

Mustang turned to us and said, "You heard the lady, now let's go."

He began walking towards the door, Major Armstrong following immediately after.

"Go where?" Winry asked.

"We have to go bring down the other robot, since it's trying to destroy the city." I explained as if it was no big deal.

We all walked passed her, she had her mouth open to protest our leaving, but instead she said "Be careful!"

I turned and smiled at her, Al said, "Don't worry, Winry, we'll be fine." Sakura nodded in agreement.

Ed stopped walking then turned around and said, "Yeah, you know us!" And he smiled warmly.

Winry looked down at the ground a slight smile on her face, though she was still worried. "Yeah, I guess I do…"

We all left the room, Winry watched us until we weren't visible anymore. She stared at the place were Ed was standing and said "I know you too well…" as if she was still talking to him.

--

"So where was this thing last spotted?" Ed asked Mustang.

Before Mustang could answer, we heard an explosive crash and saw the robot tear thru a building three blocks ahead.

"Never mind." Ed said.

Mustang's surprised expression immediately went serious and he said. "Just remember; It's weak spots are at the eye and the base of the arms. Let's go!"

We all started running towards the robot, it didn't notice us at all however.

The robot turned one of its guns to aim at a person on the ground, frozen in terror. Mustang distracted it by sending flames into it's eye. The robot's eye moved to look at us, its gun soon did the same. Ed and I transmuted two pillars that jammed into the bases of the robot's arms. This made it hard for the robot to move, however to compensate it started shooting randomly at us.

Ed and I jumped behind a nearby building for temporary cover.

"We may have to do what we did last time." Ed mused.

Just then the robot broke the pillars we transmuted and got itself free.

"I think you're right." I agreed.

We jumped back out from behind the building. Ed yelled to the rest of the group. "Keep it distracted!"

We made our way around the robot, and got a few yards behind it, then transmuted a huge steel cable net linked up to two very large polls, bent down and ready to spring out like a mouse trap.

Mustang, seeing us in position, signaled Sakura to start sending flames into the robot's eye.

Sure enough she did, and Mustang started pushing it back. However, this robot was more resistant to his blows, so he wasn't quite managing to push it back.

Major Armstrong jumped out, took his shirt off, and punched the ground, transmuting large chucks of earth that slammed against the robot, sending it flying backwards into the net.

Before it made impact, Ed and I got as far away as possible, for fear we may get injured from the springing net.

The polls snapped and the net was thrown around the robot. That's when Ed and I ran back over to transmute the polls into the ground to keep the robot down.

The robot was quick to attempt at getting up, but Major sent a large stone spike flying right into it's eye. With this, the robot stopped, only twitching a bit.

"Well, I'm glad that's over." Edward said.

"Yeah, really." I replied.

Mustang called for military personnel from a nearby station to move the robot, and get people to start searching for any survivors from the building that the robot tore thru.

--

Back at Central, we waited for Mustang in his office.

"_Wait for me in my office, there is something important I need to discuss with you all" Mustang said._

After sometime, he finally came walking in, a few documents in hand. We all watched him, eager to hear what he had to say.

He walked over to his desk, set the papers down and then sat down in his chair.

"Well, first of all I want to say great job on bringing the robot down tonight." Mustang said.

"Second of all, I have news on the robots. I'm beginning to think that whoever deployed these things has gotten scared, because now it seems the robots are retreating."

"Retreating?" Ed asked, confused.

"Yes, according to reports, they have been rapidly disappearing. However, there is only one town that there are still reports on sightings." Mustang explained.

"Which town?" I asked, a bit perplexed as to why Mustang didn't specify a name.

Mustang then got a concerned look on his face. That's why I wanted you all in here, the town is South-East of here, a town you all are familiar with as Resembool."

We gasped with shock, what interest would the robot's have in Resembool, its not like there's a high population there!

"No one's been attacked yet, it seems that the robots are merely squatting there on the outskirts of the town. However, ever since the sightings, people have been freaking out. Some have said they're going to leave Resembool." Mustang further explained.

"No." Edward spoke in a low voice.

We all looked over to a very angry Edward. He had his head down, but you could still sense the anger radiating from him like a space heater.

"There's no way in hell I'm letting those things chase everyone out of Resembool…They'll have to answer to me first."

Al put his hand on Ed's shoulder. "They'll have to answer to BOTH of us." Al expressed anger in his voice as well.

We'll be sending back up out there tomorrow-" Mustang began, but Ed interrupted.

"No, we're going tonight!" Edward demanded. "I don't care if you aren't, I am!"

Edward stared at Mustang with an intense look in his eyes, and with this Mustang smirked.

"Well, it's no use trying to dissuade you. Just know we'll be in first thing in the morning, so try not to start and huge trouble until then, alright?"

Ed nodded, just then he got a look like he just remembered something.

"Al, do you still have the research on the transmutation circle?" He asked.

Al looked in his pockets and found the book and the paper with the transmutation circle drawn on it. He handed it to Ed, and Ed walked over to Mustang's desk.

"We found out that the circle on the robot has to do with the creation of the Philosopher's Stone." He handed Mustang the transmutation circle first, and then he went looking thru the book to find the pages that had all the different types of circles on it.

"Here it is. It says here that the circle is used to collect souls for the Stone. Once a number of souls are collected, the energy collected can be transferred to the main circle on which the stone will be foraged." Edward spoke.

He handed the open book to Mustang, he proceeded to look over the page and find the circle that matched the one on the piece of paper; the one that was on the back of the Robot.

"This looks like much more that just a terrorist attack." Mustang said. "Good work on finding this."

"Well, if we're going to Resembool tonight, I guess we better go pack our bags." I said, standing up.

Ed smiled slightly, "Yeah."

We left Mustang's office and headed over to the inn we were staying in.

_**End Chapter 7**_


	8. Invasion

Chapter 8: Invasion

_**Chapter 8: Invasion**_

"Why can't I go?!" Winry exclaimed.

"It's too dangerous!" Edward raised his voice.

Winry glared at Ed for yelling at her, Ed heaved a sigh.

"Look, these thing's are crazy and will kill anything in sight, I just don't want you to get hurt." Edward explained, talking normally now.

Winry looked down at the floor, obviously frustrated about having to stay in Central.

"Besides, the Colonel needs you here to work on the robot." Edward reasoned further.

Winry sighed and looked up at Ed, "Fine, I'll stay here. But you'd better be careful or else, got it?"

Ed chuckled, "Got it."

Sakura and I appeared in the doorway, Sakura said, "We're all packed up!"

Ed nodded in acknowledgment, I walked over to Winry and hugged her, "Bye Winry, don't worry about us, okay? We'll be fine…" After I came out of the hug with Winry, Sakura came up and hugged her as well.

Winry nodded, "You guys be careful."

"We will!" Sakura and I said simultaneously. Al walked in and said "Bye Winry" while waving to her.

Ed began walking towards the door, but the turned and smiled at her, "Take care of yourself."

--

When we got to the train station, Edward went up to the ticket booth and ordered for his and Al's tickets. While he did I looked up at the clock that read 11:01. Once Ed got his tickets, I got Sakura's and mine.

11:15 our train arrived; One way to Resembool.

--

Thing's have been so hectic since the day our house got blown up. It seems like one problem occurs right after another. But one thing that was bothering me the most was the fact that the Philosopher's Stone was involved. Ed and Al have been looking for it for 5 years, and now that they found someone who's looking to forage it, how are they going to handle it? How is Ed going to handle it?

"Ed?" I spoke.

"Hmm?" He responded.

I looked down at the floor, "If we end up beating this person, who's trying to create the Philosopher's Stone, what would we do with the stone? I mean, assuming the person gets to forage it before we can find them."

Ed's expression turned serious as he looked back out the window.

"It's just that, I know you and Al have been looking for it for a long time and-"

"There's a reason why we haven't yet." Ed spoke in a low tone.

"The main ingredient for the stone is human lives. We've known this for a while now, and we've been trying to find another way to create it since. We will stop whoever it is from creating the stone, no matter what it takes."

We were all silent for a while, I spoke up again.

"But, he or she has already killed all of these people, and if they've already been added to the transmutation circle…"

"I am not going to sacrifice countless lives for my own selfish gain!" Edward yelled at me.

"What I'm trying say is it's all a lost cause already! All of those people are dead now, the damage is done, the least someone could do is not let them die for nothing!"

Ed looked away, with an angered look on his face.

"But, that's just assuming all the lives that have been take would be enough to forage it." Al brought up.

"It probably is! I mean think about it, after rampaging all across the country, all of the attacks just randomly stop and the robots start running? We confirmed that the transmutation circle on them is used to collect souls for the creation of the stone, once the person that deployed the robots has collected enough lives, then they call the robots back and use all the souls that were collected to create the stone in one fell swoop!"

"DAMMIT!!" Ed punched the wall next to him making all of us jump.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, buried his face in his hands as muffled words came out of his mouth. "This is so fucked…"

"I'm actually starting to see where Raven is coming from, brother." Al said.

Ed rubbed his face then let his hands down, "If we took the stone, then that wouldn't make us any better than that lunatic who's killing off a bunch of people. But this is all just supposition on the 'what if'."

"Well we need to be supposing on the 'What if', whoever the lunatic is could be creating the stone as we speak, so we need to think about all the possible scenarios." I said.

"What we do if the stone hasn't been made." Ed said.

"And what we do if it has been made." Al said.

"Well, if they didn't make it, then we obviously stop them, right?" Sakura said.

"But then we run into the case that Raven brought up." Al said.

"All of the people have already been killed, so what then…" Ed sat up straight. "This person isn't the only one that wants the stone here."

"Then there's the question of what do we do if it's already been made, we either let the person run off with it, take it, turn it in to the military, or destroy it." I listed off.

"We're definitely not giving it to the military, knowing their abusive history with the stone." Ed spoke.

"We won't let the person just keep it, will we?" Sakura asked.

"It's all subjective as to who deserves the stone more. For all we know the person that is trying to create the stone is planning on curing all cancer. Or their intentions could be the complete opposite, we just don't know." Edward said.

Sakura leaned back into her seat and groaned, "This stuff is too complicated."

"Well, who knows, maybe we'll find out what they want to use the stone for when we get there." Al suggested.

"What, you think they'll just tell us?" Ed asked.

"You never know, maybe if we ask nicely." I said, a little sarcastic.

"So, if they want to use it for good, we let them keep it?" Sakura suggested.

"I…guess…" Edward said, scratching his head.

"Yeah, but what if they're lying." I suggested.

"Uhgg…Alright, now this is starting to make my head hurt." Ed started rubbing his temples

"How about, in that case, we follow our gut feeling." Al suggested.

"You're kidding right, to depend solely on something so…Unpredictable?" Edward scorned.

"Hey, my gut feeling hasn't ever lied to me." I said.

Ed sighed. "But what if we all end up with different feelings?"

"We take a vote?" Sakura suggested sheepishly.

"This is stupid…" Ed said, rubbing his forehead.

"It's all we've got though; let's just hope things don't get so complicated." I said.

"So in the case of a bad intention…" Al said.

"Depends on what's considered 'bad'…" Ed said.

"Um, using it to kill?" Sakura suggested.

"That'd be kind of redundant, but okay." I said.

"Redundant?" Sakura asked.

"Well yeah, they're already killing people to make the stone, if they wanted to kill a certain clique of people, then just kill them and use them for the stone." I explained.

"Okay, uh, making gold? I don't know, I'm grasping at straws…" Al suggested.

"Can't we do that already with normal alchemy?" I asked.

"Yes." Ed said flatly.

"Umm… Making…Buildings?" Sakura suggested.

"Alright now THIS is getting stupid." Ed said.

"Bringing someone to life?" Al suggested.

"That's more like it. I say 'no'." Ed said.

"But what if it was their kid or something?" Sakura asked.

"Sometimes you just need to let go, I learned that the hard way." Ed said.

"Okay, how about resurrecting a zombie army!" I suggested enthusiastically.

Sakura and Al began chuckling.

"Will you please take this seriously…?" Ed said, fighting a smirk.

"I am! Hey, you never know!" I said.

Ed shook his head and the smirk won out. "No, obviously…"

"Okay, no zombie armies." Al said, Sakura began chuckling again in reaction.

"Alright, I'm out of ideas." I said.

"At least you admit it instead of suggesting the intention of making buildings." Ed said, poking fun at Sakura.

"Hey, shut up!" Sakura said, pushing Ed.

Ed smiled in reaction.

--

After a while we all fell asleep in our usual positions, Sakura on Al's lap, me on Ed's shoulder.

We didn't wake again until the train began slowing down, or more like Ed and Al woke up and they had to wake Sakura and I up.

We walked off of the train and onto the platform, the sky was still dark.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes, in the process I wound up bumping right into Ed who was in front of me. "Sorry." I said tiredly. After me, Al walked out with a sleeping Sakura in his arms; apparently she's a heavy sleeper.

"We should go to the Rockbell's and rest, there's no way we'll be able to face the robots right now." Ed said.

"You actually want to wake up Winry at this hour, she'll- Oh crap, I forgot she's still in Central…" I said, still half awake.

Ed chuckled and I looked at him with a tired/annoyed expression. "What are you laughing at?"

"Come on." Ed put his arm around me and began walking while sort of pulling me along.

At the Rockbell's residence, a slightly annoyed Pinako answered the door. At this point, I was so out of it I didn't know what was going on. Something about the robots, something about Winry having to stay in Central, then something about sleeping. Ah, sleep… I wanted to so bad.

--

I opened my eyes and saw that I was laying in bed, the sunlight pouring in from the window. I sat up and scratched my head, Where are we? Oh yeah, we're at Winry's house.

I quietly laughed as I thought, _I don't even remember getting into bed last night, I remember Ed waking me up on the train, I walked into him and he laughed, he put his arm around me, then Pinako aggravated about being woken up so late, and… Wow, that's it…_

I then thought back to Ed putting his arm around me, did he do that to make sure I didn't get lost, or just because he wanted to? _Probably to make sure I didn't get lost, I was so out of it._

I walked downstairs to find I was the first one up, which is pretty surprising. I was glad though, because that meant I beat Pinako to cooking breakfast. It's the least I could do after we just kind of showed up without warning, jeeze Edward is so impulsive.

_I don't blame him though, this town may be in great danger._

_**End Chapter 8**_


	9. Fortress

Chapter 9: Fortress

_**Chapter 9: Fortress**_

"Well good morning!" Pinako said behind me.

I turned around and smiled at her, "Morning!"

She saw that I was cooking breakfast and said, "Oh dear, you don't have to do that."

"But I want to, just to show thanks to you for letting us stay here on such short notice." I said.

"Well that's awful kind of you, thank you. Do you want me to wake the others?" Pinako asked.

I smiled, "Nah, once Ed and Sakura smell the food, they'll wake right up, and Al will probably come down here soon as well."

Just after I said that, Al came walking down the stairs. "Good morning, Auntie! Good morning Raven!"

"Good morning!" Pinako and I replied.

--

Sure enough as I predicted, a sleepy Ed and a sleepy Sakura made their way downstairs right about when I was finishing cooking the bacon.

We sat at the table and ate, Pinako asked Ed a few questions about the robots and what they know so far. I didn't really pay attention to their conversation. My mind was all in what our mission was here.

"So as soon as you guys are done here, You're going to go find those robots, huh?" Pinako asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. We've got to stop them before they kill anymore people." Ed replied.

"Well, you kids be careful out there." Pinako said.

After breakfast, we all cleaned up the table and the kitchen and got all the dishes washed and put away. Soon thereafter we headed out to find the robots.

We got a general idea of where the robots were from asking some of the locals where they had seen them last. They were seen somewhere on the east outskirts of town going into the woods, so that's where we headed next.

We got to the edge of the woods and already we saw evidence of the robots being there. Broken branches and bent trees gave a visual path of where they went.

We followed the trail of extensive damage, after about 30 minutes of walking we were beginning to become skeptical.

"Do you think they're already gone?" Al asked.

"I certainly hope not. Dammit, these things couldn't have gotten that far, could they?" Ed mused.

Just then we heard some snapping branches behind us. We turned to look what it was and low and behold there was a robot.

"Right there!" Sakura yelled.

The robot's eye rolled around and I suppose spotted us, because it immediately started running away from us.

We heard more branches snapping as more robots began to follow the lead of the one. Ed started running after them, yelling "Come on, we can't loose them!"

We went running thru the woods after the robots. They took many turns as if they were trying to loose us, but with all the noise they made, we always had a pinpoint on their location.

Soon enough however, we began getting tired from running after these things. Behind me Sakura tripped and fell on her face. I skidded to a halt and went to help her, she said to me "Raven's I can't run like this for much longer." panting heavily.

"I know, you just got to hang in there." I said as I helped her up, panting myself.

Ed stopped, seeing we weren't running anymore. "Are you guys okay?!" He yelled to us.

"We're fine, she just tripped." I said as we began moving forward again.

We caught up to Ed and Al and we all began running after the robots again.

"Man, we need to jump onto these things and hitch a ride or something!" I said.

"If this goes on for any longer, we may have to." Ed said.

Behind us Sakura stopped running, she dropped to her knees gasping for air.

The rest of us stopped and went over to her, I crouched down next to her and asked, "Are you alright?"

"I can't run anymore." She said in a whisper through all of her panting.

I couldn't take this anymore either, and who knew how Ed was holding up. I looked up at Ed and said, "Ed, we can't keep going like this. We're just gonna have to follow the path of destruction."

Ed nodded, and sat down. Just then Al said, "Wait, what's this?"

We looked at Al, he pointed at the ground at a trail of black liquid.

"An oil leak?" I suggested.

Ed walked over and dipped his automail finger into the black liquid, he lifted his hand and looked closer at the liquid now on his finger and said, "That's definitely oil. Motor oil, I'd guess."

"Well, looks like we have more than just the trail of destruction to follow." Al said.

Ed looked around and found some metal scraps nearby. With it he made a water pump and a few cups so we had some water to drink. The water came up murky, so we had to use alchemy to purify it.

Once we caught our breath, we began following the trail again, WALKING this time.

"I wonder how it got an oil leak…" Sakura asked rhetorically.

"Dunno, maybe from smashing thru all of those trees." Al suggested.

"I don't know about that, those things can smash thru buildings and not get even a dent." I added.

"Who cares, me personally, I'm glad the thing has an oil leak, because it's leading us straight to wherever it went." Ed said.

So we walked, following after the trail of oil and destroyed branches from the poor neighboring trees. And we kept walking for about two hours.

"Jeeze, how far did these damn things go?" Ed said.

"Really, after they saw us they must've never stopped running." I said.

Three more hours go by, it's now getting close to sunset. And STILL we're not to wherever the stupid #ing robots went.

"This is starting to piss me off, I don't think we're even in Resembool anymore!" Ed complained.

"We have to keep going, we've got to get there so we can stop whoever is trying to create the Philosopher's Stone." Al reminded.

Ed sighed dramatically and said, "I know, but still, this is getting tedious! I really wish we had a car right now. But even then, it might've just run out of gas because those robots went all the way to another damn country, er something!"

"It certainly is a good thing that we have this trail, though." Sakura said in a 'on the bright side' kind of way.

"Yeah, those things were not built to be inconspicuous." I added.

"But for such big lugs they sure move pretty fast." Ed said.

We continued walking, saying a few words here and there, sundown came quickly however. It was only a matter of time before we could no longer see the trail of oil. Hopefully It'd be a full moon tonight, because the trees were starting to thin out as it started to look like we were reaching the end of the woods. Ahead of us, Ed began walking briskly, trying to cover as much ground before darkness fell.

"Crap, this isn't good." I said.

No one asked what I meant because they knew I spoke in regard of how hard it was becoming to see the oil trail anymore.

Just then Ed broke into a run, and Al yelled, "Wha- Brother!"

We began running after him, and that's when I began to see a clearing up ahead, and something else was out there. Like a building or something.

Soon enough we were in front of a big steel door, it was big enough for one of the robots to get thru. The three of us examined the door, behind it looked as though the complex it led to was underground judging by the slanted overhang. Ed looked along the frame of the door, but didn't find any cranks or keys or anything.

"It looks like there's no external way to get in. Looks like its time for a little alchemy." Ed said.

He put his hands together and put them to the door. Almost instantly the door lowers into some space right below it, like an automatic garage. The door completely lowered and we stared into the darkness inside of the tunnel. I looked down at the floor inside and then lights that lined the upper corners along the ceiling.

And on the floor I saw the glint of a thin trail of oil; This was the robot's headquarters.

_**End Chapter 9**_


	10. Desire

Chapter 10: Desire

_**Chapter 10: Desire**_

"Do you think it's safe?" Sakura asked.

"Well, as long as we're quiet and we don't slip on the oil, we should be fine." I replied.

We entered the fortress, and once we did the door behind us rose again and closed off the exit. We turned to watch it close, Ed and I looked at each other and Ed said "Well, no turning back now."

We walked thru the sloped hallway, we soon came to a dark room. We stopped because we couldn't see anything.

"What's in here, I wonder." Al said.

"We'll I'd tell ya if I could see." Edward replied.

"I was rhetorically speaking." Al said.

Just then the lights flickered on to reveal rows upon rows of robots. We all froze in fear, we've never faced more than one robot before, even just two would probably own our asses! The robots didn't react to our presence though, they just sat there, their eye thing didn't even move.

"Uh, are they even in operation?" Sakura asked.

Ed walked right up to one and it didn't do anything, he turned to us and said, "I guess not, Heh, lucky for us."

"Lucky, indeed." I said.

We walked to the right of the robots and found another hallway, this one was normal sized though. After about two minutes of walking we came to a large room, also having no lights.

"More area for robot storage?" I mused.

The lights turned on, revealing only two robots. There was some sort of balcony up ahead, and on it someone stood. The person turned around, it was a man with glasses and short brown hair.

"So, you managed to follow my robots all the way here? I'd thought that you'd given up for sure." He said.

"Damn right we found you! Now what the hell do you think your doing having your robots rampaging all across Amestris killing people at random? Is it really all for the Stone?" Ed yelled.

"Hmm, the stone?" The man said.

"Don't play innocent with us, we know that those transmutation circles on your robots are for the Philosopher's Stone!" Ed yelled.

"Hmph, so you did your homework, I see. Yes, all of that was for the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. I really thought that I had made it away with all of that without anyone finding me, but I guess that would have been too easy." The man slid his glasses up on his nose. "You four shouldn't be much to take care of."

"Who are you, and what do you want with the stone!?" Ed demanded.

"Well, what do you want with the stone, boy? Aren't you looking for it as well?" The man asked.

Ed scowled at the man, "How do you know that?"

"Well how else would you know what the transmutation circles meant, you don't find any details about it in normal alchemy books. So tell me, what is it that you desire the stone for?" the man said.

"Quit avoiding my questions, I'm not answering any of yours until you answer mine!" Ed yelled back.

"Oh alright, I am Dr. Bareos, an alchemist like yourself." Bareos said.

"And? What do you want with the stone?" Ed said.

"A few years ago, the love of my life died from an unknown illness. Long story short, I heard about the Philosopher's Stone and decided to create it to bring my love back to life." Bareos explained.

"That's it?! All of these people's lives you took for just one?! Those people you killed were loved too you know, they had husbands and wives and children, whole families have been broken because of you, all just because you want to bring just one person back?!" Edward demanded, outraged.

"Pretty much, but what do you want it for?" Bareos asked.

"I looked into it in hopes to restore my little brother's body to normal, to correct the mistake we had made." Ed said mournfully as he pointed to Al. "But ever since I found that you have to use human lives I've been searching for another way." Ed continued.

"Hmm, so you want it for a similar reason as I. And yet you bellow at me as if I'm some horrible person. You were going to do the same weren't you?" Bareos asked.

Ed growled, hadn't Bareos heard what he just said?

"You and I are quite similar you know." Bareos said.

"Don't give me that crap! I told you I'm looking for another way to restore his body WITHOUT taking people's lives! You just don't care, you'd sacrifice all of those people just for your own selfish gain! Just because we're both alchemists and we both had sought after the stone does NOT mean that I am ANYTHING like you!!" Ed yelled.

Bareos shrugged and said, "Oh well, the four of you will make fine additions to the stone."

"Like hell we're gonna be!" I yelled at him.

Bareos looked at me and said, "Oh, you don't believe me? Well, you will soon."

Just then the two robots rose into the air, and aimed their cannons at us.

"Get ready for fight, guys." Ed said.

We all got into fighting stance, as the robots charged forward at us. The shot their cannons at us, we jumped out of the way quickly before getting blown up. I clapped my hands together and put them to the ground, moving the earth to come up and begin wrapping around one robot. The robot tried aiming at me with it's cannon, but I moved the earth over the barrel and squeezed it until it broke.

"Al, jump on this one, we'll get the next one held down!" I yelled to Al.

Alphonse came running over, I transmuted some earth to get him in the air quickly. As soon as he got to the robot, he punched thru it's eye.

Sakura snapped her fingers left and right, hitting the second robot in the eye to blind it the same way we had done before in Central. Ed put clapped his hands together and put them to the ground, doing a similar thing as I did with the first one, only he was pulling up steel out from the ground.

I transmuted several stone spikes and sent them flying into the underneath robot Al was on. This didn't seem to do much though, then a thought struck me.

"_The metal underneath the robot, however is the strongest."_

_Duh, how could I have forgotten that!_ I thought.

The stone that I had the robot wrapped in was starting to crumble, Al was doing his best to beat thru the metal near the eye.

"_The metal closest to the "eye" is the weakest."_

"Alphonse! Get out of there!" I warned Al, seeing the robot getting free.

Sure enough, Al jumped off of the robot. As soon as he did the robot busted loose and proceeded to rampage around at random, swinging it's arms. I had jump out of it's path before it hit me.

Ed had broken the cannon on the second robot, and remembering what Winry had said, he transmuted one steel spike and sent it flying right into the robot's eye. The robot stopped moving and Ed smirked thinking that he stopped it. But then it started moving again, one of it's arms fell off, except for the base joint. That's when Ed realized it was a back up eye.

The second robot picked up it's arm and the arm became a large sword, almost as if it had used alchemy to create it. But assuming that Bareos is the one controlling him, he probably was the one that transmuted it. The robot began swing at them.

Meanwhile, Al and I are still dodging the first robot that's still rampaging around. I was getting tired. Like Ed said, for such big lugs they sure move fast. I turned around and the robot was right on me, and before I had a chance to even think, it hit me sending me flying thru the air. I slammed into the ground near Al, the robot was now coming towards us.

Al quickly drew out a transmutation circle, and moved the earth to penetrate right thru the hole he made in it's head. Spiking the earth out inside of the robot, Al made sure the thing was done. Sure enough it collapsed.

Ed and Sakura were barely dodging the sharp and huge blade of the second robot, narrowly escaping being sliced up many times. The robot swung right for Ed, and he managed to block it with his right arm. However, Ed was knocked backwards from the impact of the blade.

"Ed! Hang on!" Sakura yelled, as she charged forward to help.

Ed sat up slowly, then seeing the robot preparing to strike Sakura and that she was completely open for attack he yelled, "No, Sakura stay back!"

He yelled a moment to late. The robot hit her right in her stomach. Sakura let out a yelp as the sword struck her and sent her crashing to the ground.

Al and I saw what happened and immediately jumped into action. I used alchemy to transmute a stone hand that pulled the robot's one arm clean off. Ed and Al both combined power and sent spikes flying in thru the first and second eye, also spiking out the earth/steel inside of the robot to destroy anything inside. The robot collapsed, and as soon as it did, Al stood up and ran over to Sakura.

"Sakura! Are you okay?" Al said frantically, scooping her up into his arms, Sakura smiled weakly.

Just then we heard clapping from someone. We looked up to the balcony and saw Bareos clapping, a slightly insane smile on his face.

"Well done, to be honest I'm shocked. But no matter that I didn't kill you, I still have plenty of lives to make a complete stone. And with the stone I can bring my dead love back to life finally, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" Bareos said, sounding more and more insane by the word.

"There's no way in hell we're gonna let you get away with that!" Ed yelled.

Bareos began backing into the darkness saying, "You can follow me if you'd like, but since I have full control over this fortress thru alchemy, you won't find me unless I want you to. Ta-Ta!"

Ed growled in irritation, I was angry myself, not just because of what he's trying to do…

I looked over to the now unconscious and bleeding Sakura lay limp in Alphonse's arms.

…But because of what he did do…

_**End Chapter 10**_


	11. The Stone

The wall next to us parted and revealed a hallway

_**Chapter 11: The Stone**_

"Sakura, hang in there!" Al said.

Ed and I ran over to the two of them. I knelt down next to Sakura and saw the wound she had on her stomach.

"Dammit, this isn't good." I said.

I took my jacket and ripped off a couple strips of cloth. I tied the two together and wrapped it around Sakura's wound. I then brushed the hair out of her face and gently rubbed her cheek with my hand.

I stood up and looked at Ed, who was looking at Sakura with a concerned expression until he noticed me looking at him.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked him.

Just then, the wall next to us parted and revealed a hallway. We looked from the opening to each other, Ed answered. "We go after Bareos."

He turned to Al and said, "Are you going to be okay here?"

Al looked down at the unconscious Sakura in his arms and said, "I think it'd be better if I stayed with Sakura."

Ed and I both nodded, I crouched back down next to Sakura and put my hand on her cheek. "Hang in there for us, okay?" I said to her, hoping that she would hear.

I stood up and looked at Ed, who was looking at me. He turned to face the entrance, I walked up to his side.

"Ed, what if it's a trick? You heard what he said, he controls this entire fortress with alchemy." I asked him.

"It's the only lead we've got. We can't just sit here and let him get away with this." Ed said in a serious tone.

I looked down at the ground in worry, it was such a gamble, but as Ed said, it's the only lead we've got.

Noticing my worry, Ed put his hand on my shoulder giving me an understanding look. I looked at him and we stared into each other's eyes for a moment. He then took his hand off my shoulder and turned his head to face the opening, a serious look on his face again.

"Let's go." He said.

We started walking towards the opening, Al then said. "Be careful."

Ed and I turned to look at Al, Ed smirked and said, "Don't you worry about us."

We turned back to the opening, and then we ran in.

Into the darkness.

As soon as we ran in, the entrance closed off behind us; now there was no turning back. Dim lights lit up along the ceiling, revealing that we were in some sort of hallway. We continued on running again.

We ran and ran, for probably 15 minutes, wondering if we would ever reach the end of this tunnel. Just then, I saw something up ahead. "Edward, I see something!" I said.

Ed focused his eyes, and saw something as well. Just then he grabbed my arm and stopped running. I slowed to a stop with him, I turned to face him with a questioning look.

"Ed, what is it?" I asked.

He put his hand on my cheek, and came closer to me, closer until our lips met. He began kissing me slowly but passionately, after a few moments our lips parted again. He opened his eyelids revealing his gold eyes to me, enchanting me just like how they did before.

"If anything happens, I want you to know, I really love you." Ed said to me.

On impulse I said, "I love you, too."

He briefly kissed me on the lips again, and stared into my eyes, I could now see worry in the look he was giving me. I smiled widely at him and said.

"Ed, don't worry! We'll be fine, we'll all make it out of this! We always do!"

Ed stared at me for a while, then he smiled, though the worry still present in him. "I hope you're right, Raven."

I looked behind me at the light that may be the end of the tunnel. I turned my head back to Ed and said, "Come on, let's stop this guy once and for all!"

Ed smiled and nodded, "Yeah."

We began running again down the hall.

--

Meanwhile, back where Al and Sakura were, memories of holding Ed missing an arm and leg flooded Al's mind as the pool of blood under Sakura grew. Even if Al didn't have a real body, the feelings of sadness and fear were very real and true to him.

_Please hurry you guys._ Al thought.

Just then Al heard footsteps, at first it only sounded like a couple people but then the numbers went up. The footsteps got louder, Al looked behind him and confirmed that the footsteps were coming from behind him. Just then Mustang, Armstrong, Hawkeye, Hughes, Havoc, Fury, Breda, Falman, and who knows how many soldiers marching behind them, came pouring in.

"Alphonse! Are you alright?" Mustang called to Al.

"Uh, I'm fine, but Sakura!" Al held up Sakura a little as Mustang arrived to Al's side.

"I see… You there! Get the first aid!" Mustang ordered to one of the soldiers, the soldier ran off and Mustang crouched down in front of Al. Mustang picked up Sakura's wrist and felt for a pulse.

"She still got a pulse, but it's a bit faint. How long has she been like this?" Mustang asked Al.

"Um, I don't know, maybe 20 or 25 minutes…?" Al guessed.

The soldier came back with bandages, one soldier lay down a blanket on which the lay Sakura on. After that they immediately started cleaning and bandaging the wound.

"Where is Ed and Raven?" Hawkeye asked.

"They went that way to stop the alchemist that has been behind all of the attacks. He wants to create the Philosopher's Stone so he can bring his dead lover back to life." Al answered, as he pointed to the hallway that we had went down earlier.

Mustang stared at the hallway for a while, until he said, "We need to go assist them now, who knows how they're faring. Lieutenant Hawkeye, Major Armstrong, and you five there…" He signaled to five soldiers. "I want you all to come with me to assist Fullmetal and Silver-Spear."

"Yes sir!" They all saluted him, and followed him as he began running towards the hallway.

Just then, the hallway entrance closed off, Mustang's eyes widened as he skidded to a halt. Everyone did the same behind him.

"What in blazes?!" Mustang exclaimed staring at what was once an opening, completely closed off as if it never existed. He examined the wall, until he found a few transmutation marks.

_So that's how you did this._ He thought.

"Colonel, what do we do?" Hawkeye asked.

Mustang turned around and said, "We need to find a way to break this wall down."

"Then leave it to me, Colonel Mustang!" Major Armstrong exclaimed as he took his shirt off and posed.

"I can help to, Colonel!" Al offered.

Mustang nodded, "Alright, we'll need all the help we can get."

--

Ed and I were finally getting close to the end of the hallway. From there we saw bright light flashing.

"Ed!" I yelled.

"I know, he must've started on the creation of the stone, we have to hurry!" Ed yelled back.

We began running even faster, it was only moments until we finally got to the room. We were almost blinded, because the light from the transmutation was so much brighter that the light that lit the hallway. Our eyes adjusted quickly, Ed barreled into Bareos stopping him from continuing the transmutation.

Ed pinned him down and yelled at him, "I told you we weren't going to let you get away with this!"

I looked at the transmutation circle, and instead of the transmutation stopping, it continued going.

"Ed, the transmutation isn't stopping!" I said.

Ed looked over at the circle, and with an angry look on his face he turned back to Bareos. "How do you stop it?"

Just then the entire room began shaking, and the circle began expanding slowly.

"It can't be stopped at this stage, it has to be finalized or it will consume everything around it." Bareos replied.

Ed punched him, "Don't lie to me!! I know there's got to be a way to stop the damn thing, tell me how, dammit!!"

Bareos laughed manically, "I already told you, the stone has to be finished! That's the only way to stop the transmutation."

Ed got pissed off and hit Bareos again, only this time he knocked him out.

"Ed, the circle is growing, we've got to do something!" I yelled.

Ed stood up and turned to face the circle that was visibly but not rapidly expanding over the floor. Ed clapped his hands, and was about to use alchemy but I stopped him.

"Ed, wait! We don't know what that will do! This is the Philosopher's Stone here, and if alchemy is used near it, doesn't it take power from it?" I said.

"Well we have to do something! I was going to see if I could make a break in the circle to make it stop expanding until we figure out what to do with it." Ed said. "But now that you mention it, I think I do remember reading something like that…"

Just then, a piece of the ceiling came down and landed right in the circle. It merely just dissolved away.

"After seeing that, I don't think making a breaker would have done anything." Ed buried his face in his hands. "What are we going to do…?"

I looked from him to the circle, I then said, "I guess we have to finish it."

Ed put his hands down and looked at me like I was crazy. I saw this look he was giving me, and I got annoyed.

"Don't give me that look! It's the only option we have right now! If we don't, this circle will keep going, it'll spread all thought this fortress, spread out of the country-side. Who knows when this thing will stop, we have to do something!"

Ed's expression turned concerned and frustrated as he looked down at the ground. I took his left hand into my right, "You aren't alone, I'll do this with you." I said.

Ed looked at me for a moment, then he looked at the circle that was now only two feet away from us. "Alright, let's do this."

We took a step closer to the circle and knelt down. We put our hands down on it, and began to finish the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. The red light turned white, so bright as if the sun was right there in front of us.

The light became so bright that I had to close my eyes, and soon enough…

…I passed out.

_**End Chapter 11**_


	12. Gift

Chapter 12: Gift

_**Chapter 12: Gift**_

I woke up, unsure of what had happened. I sat up and looked around, I saw that we were still Bareos's fortress. That's when I remembered that Ed and I had just finished creating the Philosopher's Stone, but where was Ed? I quickly looked to my right and saw him unconscious as well. I quickly crawled over to him and shook him worriedly.

"Ed? Edward, wake up!" I said.

Sure enough, his eyes opened and he looked at me a little confused. I smiled and hugged him, "I'm so glad you're okay." I said.

Ed put his arm around me, and attempted to sit up a little bit. "What happened?"

I pulled myself off of him and let him sit up the rest of the way. I said, "We transmuted the Philosopher's Stone so the transmutation circle for it wouldn't eat the whole country."

Ed rubbed his face, "Aw, dammit, I thought that was a dream. At least I was hoping it was…"

I looked around some more and then I saw someone on the ground in front of us. They were too small to be Bareos, and they were covered up with a grey blanket. I stood up and walked over to the lump in the floor, once I got close I could tell it was a child. I pulled the blanket back a bit to reveal their face. I gasped and jumped backward onto my butt.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Ed said as he began walking over.

I sat back up and checked the child's pulse on his neck. He was very much alive; and he was definitely Ed's younger brother.

Ed arrived to my side and saw who it was that was in front of me. He gasped, "Al…?"

He walked around to the other side of Alphonse, Ed stared at his face in utter shock, there was no doubt that it was Alphonse Elric in the flesh and blood.

Ed touched Al's face with his left hand, just then Al opened his eyes and looked up to his brother.

"Brother?" Al said, a confused look on his face. He sat up, and the blanket the covered him fell revealing that he didn't have a shirt. Before Al could react, Ed hugged his little brother tightly as if he hadn't seen him in ten years.

"Ah! Brother…I…Can't…Breathe…!" Al said.

Ed quickly let go of Al, and said "Sorry…"

Al realized something was up, "Wait, I couldn't breathe?" Al looked at his hands in utter shock that he wasn't in a suit of armor anymore. He looked at Ed, "Brother?"

"I don't know Al…" Ed replied.

I looked down and saw that there was a piece of paper in Al's lap. I picked it up, and unfolded it.

"What's that?" Al asked.

My expression turned shock, but then I smiled. "This should answer your guy's question."

I handed the paper to Ed, he held it so both him and Al could read it. The paper read:

_Edward,_

_We may not have the same morals, but we still relate when it comes to what we desired the stone for._

_So, this here I understand is your little brother. You two look much alike._

_No need to thank me, I'm already long gone anyway._

_- Bareos_

Ed threw the paper down and began looking around the room. "Dammit, where'd he go?"

Ed walked around the room, looking in every nook and cranny. Just then we heard a bunch of footsteps, we all looked to see where it was coming from, and just then from the hall that we came in from, Mustang and every one else showed up.

Mustang seemed to relax a bit seen that we were alright, but then he saw Al and was confused.

We all noticed that he didn't recognize Alphonse, so Edward explained. "Uh, this is Al, believe it or not. Bareos brought his body back while we weren't looking."

Mustang's confused look went away and he said, "Ah that explains why he separated Al from the rest of us. But why would he do that?"

"I don't know, he left a note saying something along the lines of, 'we relate when it comes to what we desired the stone for', and he said don't bother thanking him, he's already long gone now." Ed explained.

"Gone, huh. So I guess that means the stone has been foraged and he got away with it." Mustang filled in.

"We would have stopped him, but we got knocked out." I explained. "Once we woke up, he was gone, and Al was here."

"Is Sakura okay?" Al asked.

Mustang nodded, "She's fine, she's still unconscious and we had to give her some blood to help her recover from that wound."

I sighed, "That's a relief."

Just then the building began shaking, and more bits of the ceiling began caving in.

Mustang the yelled, "The fortress is caving in, we need to get out of here, A.S.A.P.!"

Sure enough we all followed him out of the place, and got out just in time for the whole place to not cave in on us. The sun was high in the sky and the weather was as pleasant as could be. It almost felt like one big happy ending to the whole ordeal. Even if the Philosopher's Stone and Bareos went missing.

Ed took the blank that Al had himself wrapped in and made a pair of pants and a shirt for him, since apparently he wasn't wearing anything under the blanket.

Ed stepped away from the rest of the gang took a big whiff of the air, he lifted his arms out and let the wind caress his entire body. Anybody could tell he was incredibly happy just by looking at him.

Sakura had woken up, and was quite surprised to see Al at eye level as opposed to being a 7 foot tall suit of armor. But none the less, I'm almost certain she thought he was cute.

I wrapped my arms around Ed from behind and said, "We made it. We're alive."

Ed smiled and said, "Yeah, we made it."

"Well, I don't mean to spoil all of the fun, but we do need to go back to Central, and you two do need to fill out a detailed report of what happened." Mustang said to Ed and I.

I let go of Ed as we both turned to look at Mustang and Ed said to Mustang, "Aw, are you serious?"

Mustang smirked, "I expect them on my desk Monday morning."

"What?! That's tomorrow morning! Can't we at least get some rest first?" Ed protested.

"Fine, I'll make it Tuesday morning, but no later, got it?" Mustang said.

Ed had an annoyed look on his face that made me laugh. He looked at me and said, "What's so funny? You have to do that too you know!"

"I know, I'm just laughing at that look on your face." I said over laughs.

He continued looking annoyed, he mumbled, "What's wrong with the way I look?"

Everyone got themselves together, and we headed back to Central.

--

Much of the country rejoiced that the attacks from the robots had stopped, but the worrisome still remained since the person behind the attacks was still on the loose.

Mustang put out a search for Bareos, and notified all neighboring countries, including Xing.

Ed and I wrote our boring reports, hoping that the Colonel would understand why we completed the stone.

Edward and I decided to be in a serious relationship officially… Yes, as in we're now boyfriend and girlfriend. Sakura and Al's response to this was something along the lines of, "Finally! It's about time you guys stopped beating around the bush!"

And everything went back to normal, at least as normal as it could. Things probably won't stay so calm for long. Knowing what trouble magnets the four of us are, we're destined to end up in more crazy adventures.

But to be honest, I'm happy to know that, because I don't think I'd like to have it any other way.

_**End Chapter 12**_

_**END SHIRANAI OUGONJUTSU 2: RESURRECTION OF THE CRIMSON ELIXIR**_

_**After word:**_

YAY! That makes 2 stories I have officially finished.

Yes, I know, I predicted 13 chapters, but in the notebook I wrote the summaries for each chapter in, I accidentally skipped Chapter 8. Hence the reason why there are only 12.

Another funny thing is the last chapter I finished was chapter 10. OO

And ZOMG! Ed and Raven FINALLY Kiss! Haha!

Okay, special thanks…special thanks…

+My ever so supportive and adoptive DeviantART family and friends. (Yeah, you know who you are!)

+My computer for putting up with my abusive ass. (What a trooper! Yay Edo!)

+My mom, for letting me use her computer when I didn't have Ed.

+My external HDD, Winry! (She protects all of my precious stories.)

+My homey, Emily (For talking to me when I was bored with writing. Huu. . )

+BARNSE & NOBEL! (Wait, what?)

+Hiromu Arakawa and all the other people that own rights to FMA. (Thanks for not suing!)

+And Last, but not least, YOU! (for reading this story!)

And all the people who left reviews and gave me favorites and all that kool stuff…

Leave some reviews, give me some feedback! It's all the reviews from the first Shiranai Ougonjutsu that really inspired me to finish this sequel!

Oh yeah! And go check out the official website:

unknownalchemy **.**webs **.**com

Until next time, thanks for reading Shiranai Ougonjutsu 2!

-Raven


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